C 2017

Multilingualism in American Jewish Literature: Irena Klepfisz’s Yiddish Revival

WEISS, Michaela

Basic information

Original name

Multilingualism in American Jewish Literature: Irena Klepfisz’s Yiddish Revival

Authors

WEISS, Michaela (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

1. vyd. San Diego, Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Literature and Language, p. 67-87, 21 pp. 2017

Publisher

Academic Publishing

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Kapitola resp. kapitoly v odborné knize

Field of Study

60200 6.2 Languages and Literature

Country of publisher

United States of America

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Publication form

printed version "print"

RIV identification code

RIV/47813059:19240/17:A0000050

Organization unit

Faculty of Philosophy and Science in Opava

ISBN

978-1-68346-101-2

Keywords (in Czech)

jidiš poezie; americká židovská poezie; Irena Klepfisz

Keywords in English

Yiiddish poetry; American Jewish poetry; multilingual poetry; Irena Klepfisz

Tags

International impact, Reviewed
Změněno: 25/3/2018 11:09, doc. PhDr. Michaela Weiss, Ph.D.

Abstract

V originále

The paper analyses the functions and importance of multilingualism in American Jewish literature, with special attention paid to the poetry of an American Jewish poet of Polish origin, Irena Klepfisz, who in her most recent poems intertwines Yiddish and English. For her, America is a linguistic and cultural exile, not a place she would call home. That is why she started to fuse these languages. Unlike the previous writers, she does not use Yiddish to add a specific cultural coloring to the text but to emphasize the different linguistic and cultural experience that is closely connected with the language. She feels that as the language of immigrants, English cannot depict the Holocaust and the world of Yiddishkayt correctly. That is why Klepfisz retorts to multilingual poetry to transcend the borders between nations and cultures and offer a mirror or a reference point for each other. Moreover, a bilingual text can be viewed as a way for a non-English text to gain wider audience and acceptance, and at the same time to start influencing and changing the view of America and its people.